The Ten Days of Holiness Challenge

don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of GodJames 4:4

In an attempt to help you all understand the depth of the truth about spiritual wickedness that exist in this world, I found a way to show you all first hand just how much your thinking, spirituality and relationship with God is being affected by the things of this world and its influences by suggesting the “Ten Days of Holiness Challenge”.

I challenge you to go ten days straight abstaining from as many of the below listed variables. For some, a lot of these are gonna be as easy as a cool breeze, but the challenge lies in the ones that you know that you will struggle with giving up, not the ones that you can easily or already avoid daily. Just as a simple thanks for the sacrifice already finished and the debt already paid by our Lord Jesus Christ for the sins of this world.

The following list was just a few of my own idea’s but if you can think of any others that you know are particular to your life and you’d like to add, by all means, do include those too.

I pray that the Lord prepares your heart, mind and spirit to receive the most out of the path you are about to embark on.

Abstinence – The fact or practice of restraining oneself from indulging in something

– Refrain from any secular music. This includes radio and cd’s that are not spiritual in nature. If you require upbeat music for the gym or something of the sort, try to get instrumentals instead.

– Refrain from the television. This means moving away from keeping up with all of the negative focus of news reports or subtle wickedness in TV shows. Get outdoors more. Your bodies are temples and its a form of worship just by how you care for them.

– Keep a clear and focused mind on the Lord in everything you do. From the time you get up until you go back to sleep, take captive every single daily thought and make them obedient to God alone.

– Deviate from gossip or malicious comments and words or curses. Avoid perverse jokes as well. Set a guard over your mouth and keep at it.

– Fast (if possible) If only a half day fast. Set a time and keep to it.

– Spend time in the Word of God. I recommend The Book of Proverbs or Psalms for this. It has a great way of covering many topics of the Bible all in one book and will strengthen your mind.

– Pray often. Pray for yourself, for others, for strangers, and spend time in all sorts of prayer. Fast prayers quickly darted out, long prayers with a focus or goal, prayers with others, etc

– I encourage little acts of kindness. No need for extreme gestures. Buy someone a coffee. Help a homeless person. Donate to a cause where you can see the results immediately like helping a neighbor or friend with an immediate problem where you give time instead of money. Exercise wisdom with giving if you do.

– If you’re part of a church body, spend more time there for the next ten days of possible. If you are new to the faith, take a chance and visit a local church. I personally recommend a Pentecostal Christian Church. Having a clear understanding of the Bible will help you in the challenge

– Abstain from lust in your thoughts, your eyes, and engaging in activities that would cause the fleshly lust to overcome the spiritual peace. In plain, this means no sex or sexual activity in addition to lusts. Hold every thought captive, and replace unholy thoughts with those that are instead obedient to Christ

– Use holy incentives. Think about the holiness of heaven and how ten days is short in comparison to an eternity in the holiest of places, the heavens above.

– Try to avoid venues that will encourage breaking one of the things above that you are trying to refrain from. Keep the fact that you are fasting between you and God

In conclusion, if you take your faith seriously, then aim to take the challenge seriously. Set alarms or make notes and reminders that you place around yourself within your daily routine like the office or at home to encourage you throughout the challenge. Know that you’ve embarked on a journey designed to bring you just a bit closer to a deeper relationship with our Holy God who died so that you might have life to the fullest. I’ll be praying for you all. Don’t forget to speak to God in prayer and ask for His assistance constantly throughout the challenge.

Here’s a link to quick references from the Bible based on topic to help support and strengthen your knowledge in why you’re doing this.

Just type in a topic like “alcohol”, and it will help you to see all related scriptures that will assist you in abstaining if that’s your focus.

The Challenge begins Sunday August 11th 2013

Use the day before to get necessary groceries or prepare meals for fasting, and get your hands on any books that may aid your success during the time. Take up the whole Armor of God and stand strong.

Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.Ephesians 6:13-17

Grace to you all and all glory to God, whose work was complete in nailing our every sin to the cross

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.1 John 4:10